Formerly the non-partisan watchdog of the 2010 US Census, and currently an opinion blog that covers all things political, media, foreign policy, globalization, and culture…but sometimes returning to its census/demographics roots.

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Posts Tagged ‘Standard-Times’

Perhaps the below letter to the Standard-Times of San Angelo, Texas explains why Texas “participation rates” have been so low…A look at the San Angelo Take 10 map reveals that portions of this city have rates at 50% or 51%, which are far below the national average of 63% (as of yesterday at 4pm EST):

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Ruth Thompson, San Angelo

In the April 1 issue of the Standard-Times there were two articles on the 2010 census and the ongoing effort in San Angelo, specifically the “last official push to get people to mail their forms back in, called ‘March to the Mailbox.’”

Nice — except that people who never received the forms can’t easily mail them back in. I have talked to multiple neighbors on my street and no one received the census questionnaire.

I thought that would be an easy situation to remedy, but has anyone else tried to contact the local census officials? Of the two articles about the census in the April 1 issue of the Standard-Times, no phone numbers or points of contact were given.

I tried called the San Angelo city government — they suggested I call the Standard-Times. A lady there gave me two phone numbers. I called the first one and the individual who answered the phone apparently had never heard of the census. I called the second number, got an answering machine and left my name and phone number. Haven’t heard a word in response.

Sadly, everybody on my street will be a statistic — considered “hard to count or nonresponsive.” Personally, I don’t think the local census office cares.